Visualization in Agile

Pune Agile Professionals
Visualization in Agile
16 January, 2016 @ Mastek Pune

These thoughts were originally presented at the
workshop “Visualization - The unsung hero in your Agile
journey” at the Pune Agile Professionals Meetup on
January 16, 2016.
2
Event Link: http://www.meetup.com/Pune-Agile-Professionals/events/227327401/
Facilitators:
 Ankit Tandon @tandon12, https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankit-tandon-04317631
 Vineet Patni @patnivin, https://in.linkedin.com/in/patnivineet

www.ScaleUpConsultants.com
Let’s start with our ritual
source: www.agilemanifesto.orghttp://agilemanifesto.org/

12 Agile Principles…
Satisfy
Customer
Harness
Change
Deliver
Frequently
Work
Together Daily
Motivated
Individuals
Face-to-Face
Conversation
Measure
Working
Software
Sustained
pace
Technical
Excellence
Keep it Simple
Self
Organizing
Teams
Reflect-Tune-
Adjust

Why do projects fail?

Top reasons of project failure
 Lack of Visibility of all Projects
 Unclear Project Objectives
 No Visibility into Resource Workload / Over allocated Resources
 Gaps in Communication / Poor communication
 Management not paying enough attention
 Failure to hammer out the nitty gritty details
 Scope Creep
 Unhelpful teams and technology just complicate things
 Senior Management Meddling
 Bad Project management / The “Accidental Project Manager”
 Poor estimations / Underestimated timelines / Unreliable Estimates /
Unrealistic Schedules
 Lack of Team Planning Sessions
 No Risk Management
 Poor Change management / Failure to Understand the Impact of
Changes

Due to lack of visibility and predictability
Predictability:
The degree to which a
correct prediction or
forecast of a system's
state can be made
either qualitatively or
quantitatively.
Visibility:
The state of being visible
(that can be seen;
perceptible to the eye:
apparent; manifest;
obvious; being constantly
or frequently in the
public view;)

 Executive management
 Project management
 Team members
Variability and Predictability needed at ALL levels for
project success
What visibility and predictability do they require?

 By Making things visible. Literally! 
 “Real” over “speculative” reporting
- Working Software is the only measure of progress.
 Avoid overheads of reporting by making it simple to
report, access and understand.
How do we bring Visibility and Predictability to our
Projects?

Visualization

What is Visualization?
A picture is worth a thousand words.
 Making mental or real images or pictures
 Any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations
to communicate a message, or develop an understanding.

Our Brain is Wired for Visuals
source: https://blog.slideshare.net/2014/11/10/the-power-of-visuals-10-facts-you-need-to-know/

 The traditional project plans and status reports are not as
effective
 Infuse collaboration
 Increase communication
 Focus on the right things
 See the whole, look at the big picture
 Reducing risk
Why Visualize our Work?

Visualization in Agile Projects

Linking Visualization the Agile Values and Principles
Satisfy
Customer
Harness
Change
Deliver
Frequently
Work
Together Daily
Motivated
Individuals
Face-to-Face
Conversation
Measure
Working
Software
Sustained
pace
Technical
Excellence
Keep it Simple
Self
Organizing
Teams
Reflect-Tune-
Adjust

 Shared documents aren’t shared understanding.
 It takes more than words to tell a story.
 Stories are about more than what to build.
 The whole story is bigger than a developer can build in a
couple of days.
Jeff Patton says..
Why documents fail…

Many levels of Agile Work Visualization
Strategy
Portfolio
Product
Release
Iteration
Daily

Visualization Tools

Information Radiator

 Also known as a Big Visible Chart (BVC)
 An information radiator displays information in a place
where passersby can see it.
 With information radiators, the passersby don't need to
ask any question; the information simply hits them as
they pass.
Most Popular Information Radiators:
 Task boards
 Burn-down charts
 Build health indicators
Information Radiators

 A large graphical representation of project information kept plainly in
sight within an agile development team’s shared workspace.
 Also known as a Big Visible Chart (BVC)
 The term is generic rather than specific:
 Burn down charts, task boards, planning boards and storyboards are
among the possibilities.
 An information radiator is usually hand-drawn or printed but can also
include computer-generated charts and electronic displays.
 The purpose of information radiators is to help keep the team
focused on what really needs their attention and to promote
transparency.
Information Radiator

 Simple: Should be brief and concise
 Current: Information displayed should be current
 Transient: The problems and errors shouldn't be there on
the chart for long; once the problem has been rectified, it
should be taken off.
 Influential: Influences the team members and
management; and empowers the whole team to take
decisions.
 Highly visible
 Minimal in number
Characteristics
What makes a good Information Radiator

Evolutionary change through
visualization, flow management and
collaboration
Kanban

Kanban Boards

 “Kanban” is a Japanese term meaning a “task Board”, or
“signboard”
 Kanban Is a concept related to Lean and just-in-time (JIT)
production.
 It’s a just-in-time scheduling system for inventory control
 It uses a continuous pull system to take work through
the stages of development
 A Kanban Board shows the current status of all the tasks
to be done within this iteration.
Kanban

1. Visualize work
2. Limit Work in Progress (WIP)
3. Measure & Manage Flow
4. Make Process Policies Explicit
5. Enable Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)
Kanban Core Principles

Visualize your flow
FLOW

Visualize your flow
FLOW
Use columns, rows, lines
to represent your flow
either on wall / white
boards
Workflow helps to see
progress, improve
collaboration and reveal
bottle necks
Keep it Accessible,
Simple, Clean and keep
Evaluating

Visualize your norms
• Definition Of Done and Team Habits

Let’s Explore..
How we can bring in visualization in the
Agile projects?
Some examples…

Visual Indicator 1

Visual Indicator 2

Visual Indicator 3

Visual Indicator 3 (Cont.)

Visual Indicator 4

Visual Indicator 5

Visual Indicator 6

Some More Visualization Techniques…

Legend

Avatars
• Name Post Sticks

Avatars
• Cartoon Characters

Avatars Big and Small
Big one is the
main task team
member is
focusing upon
while small
one is where
he is helping
out

Confidence Smileys

Confidence Smileys
At the end of daily stand
up team ask themselves
how confident they are of
finishing the story by the
end of sprint
Update the stories with
color of Confidence Smiley
accordingly
An effective alternative to
Sprint Burndown chart

Dotting
Put a new dot
each day for
tasks In Progress
Tasks should not
have more than
a few dots
Dots reveal
bottlenecks
Effort should be
made towards
completing ‘In
Progress’ tasks
before picking
new ones

Blocked
Red color sticky
for blocked tasks
Description, date
and a new dash
for everyday it is
blocked for
Discussion in
daily stand up to
review and
resolve

Express Lane
• Criteria – Prod Issue, CI blocker, Blocks other team etc

Parking Lot (With States)

On Time Stand Ups
+1 every
time
stand up
starts on
time
Beat the
highest
score for
a team
lunch

What’s Hot Today
Put general
information sharing
items in ‘What’s Hot
Today’
Once information is
shared clear the
section for next
day’s standup

Umpteen In 15
Have a separate
15 minutes
technical
discussion just
after the standup
to avoid running
it over
Write down the
items in the
board under
‘Umpteen In 15’
section

LATE=PIZZA
Draw a pizza
When someone is
late for the stand up,
put that persons
name in one of the
slices
When the pizza is full,
count the winner
Winner treats
everyone with pizza
in the lunch

Standup Timer
Just putting a timer
on the desk while
doing stand ups helps
– It has got Magic
powers

Stand Up Wall

Stress Meter

Pair Programming Matrix
Helps to visualize
pair programming
in the team
Put a dash in the
corresponding box
after each pairing
session
Review and talk
about the results in
the retrospectives
/ any other
decided meeting

Pair Programming Map
Teams can also
try pairing map
for the same
purpose

Story Point Ruler

Pyramid Backlog
Base of the backlog
has epics
Epics break into
stories and percolate
to the top of pyramid
Top stories form sprint
backlog
Ensures ‘Just enough /
Just in time’
Rules on story size can
be imposed, i.e. only
stories less than 8 can
go to priority level 2 or
higher
Can be useful for
Kanban / Scrum ban
type frameworks

Dependency Spider

Kudos Wall
Whenever a team member
feels someone else has
done something great and
deserves appreciation, he
puts it on a sticky on the
Kudos wall
A great tool to enhance
intrinsic motivation within a
team

Fail Wall
Team member puts a
post sticky with
description on the
fail wall whenever
he has messed up
Does a failure bow
Team members
applaud for giving
them a learning
Creates safe and
conducive
environment for
experimentation /
learning

Achievement Poster
At the end of
retrospective
meeting summarize
your sprint
achievements on a
poster
Bigger the sticky
bigger the
achievement
You can also try
different color sticky
for different events

Interruption Bucket
Categorize interruption
on post sticks as per
their common source
Decide upon a
threshold for ex. 4
Whenever threshold is
reached call a meeting
to discuss ways to
reduce them

DND Hour Glass
Request for
undisturbed,
uninterrupted time
Put it on your table
with a note
Amount of sand left
will be an indicator
when your will be free
45 Mins

Retro Input Wall
Capture the
retro inputs
on the wall as
soon as they
catch your
attention
Creates
transparency
Validates real
issue
Review them
in the
retrospectives

Retro Input Box
Use it when
team does
not want to
make the
inputs public
Review them
in
retrospective
s

Waste Snake Wall
Every time there is a
delay, write it down
on sticky and add it
to the end of snake
Include the time
lost, things affected,
cause with
reporter’s initials
It becomes an
information radiator
to analyze, quantify,
resolve impediments
and reduce waste

Kaizen Board
Track the
retrospective
actions
through out
the sprint
Use post sticks
for each action
Move them
out from the
board once the
real time
impact is
observed

How to peel sticky notes and Blue tack
Traditional Way – Bottom to top. Results into curl up and it doesn’t hold for
long
Better Way – Left to Right. Still results into raised corner. Not very effective
Correct Way – With thumb under Post It. Hold the stack from underneath with
the other hand and instead of pulling up, pull back in one movement to have
perfectly flat sticky.
If it still does not stick, Use Blu Tack. It’s cheap and super effective.

References
 http://blog.crisp.se
 http://www.jurgenappelo.com
 https://blog.pivotal.io/labs/labs/pair-programming-matrix
 http://www.ccpace.com/the-backlog-pyramid/
 http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/12/snake-on-the-wall
 http://agiletestinglessonslearned.wordpress.com/
 http://thekaizone.com/2014/06/agile-kaizen-speeding-up-continuous-
improvement/

Happy Visualizing !
Please share your feedback or suggestions at:
 Ankit Tandon ankit.ros@gmail.com
 Vineet Patni vineet@ScaleUpConsultants.com

Visualization in Agile

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